SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 171

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  NOVEMBER 9, 2020

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 171, with committee amendments.

      As amended, the bill would require the Adjutant General of the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs to award grants, subject to the availability of funds, to certain southern New Jersey counties to provide veterans with improved access to homeless shelters.  Under the bill, Atlantic County, Cape May County, and Cumberland County may submit applications to the Adjutant General proposing locations for homeless veterans shelters and identifying property the county would provide to the State for the development of a shelter.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments clarify that the Adjutant General would only be required to award grants after funding has been made available for the program by the Legislature.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) projects indeterminate costs to the State from potential grant awards to its three southernmost counties to identify properties the counties would provide to the State for the development and operation of shelters for homeless veterans.  Among other factors, the cost would be dependent on whether the counties would elect to seek the State grants, a decision the OLS cannot anticipate with a reasonable degree of certainty.  The OLS anticipates, however, that the grant program would likely be a one-time initiative that could extend beyond a single fiscal year.

      The costs to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to develop and administer the grant program would likely be absorbed within exiting departmental resources.